If you habitually stumble into the office bleary - eyed , grasping a caffeinated beverage like it ’s your one and only life line , we have bad news for you .

No matter how much superfluous ease you rack up on your day off , a hebdomadal lie - in is not an fair to middling fix for night of lost sleep . researcher at the University of Colorado , Boulder , have authored a study , now published inCurrent Biology , with the regrettable conclusion that “ catching up ” at the weekend will not unwrap the damage of sleep deprivation during the week . And , perhaps even more frustratingly , attempting to time in more ZZZs in your spare fourth dimension can actually make thing worse , if you return to your sleep - depriving habit   as presently as the next workings week starts .

“ Our finding suggest that the common demeanor of burning the standard candle during the week and judge to make up for it on the weekend is not an effective health scheme , ” Kenneth Wright , music director of UC Boulder ’s Sleep and Chronobiology Lab and fourth-year author of the paper , said in astatement .

It ’s common knowledge that proceed light on sleep is bad for your wellness . It has been link up to obesity and diabetes . inquiry suggest itincreases craving , decreases insulin sensitivity , and impairs our ability to regulate kale . Other study associate a deficiency of sleep withdepression , neurodegeneration , andAlzheimer ’s . It seems even just a night of unsatisfied sleep may be enoughto impress the genesthat control metabolic function .

Past inquiry evoke that sleeping for extra time on the weekend can facilitate the consistence recover , at least reasonably – but this effect is sadly short and sweet .

So , to find out how a constant yo - yoing between not enough and too much sleep affects our health , Wright and colleagues recruit 36 healthy adult age 18 to 39 and monitored their sleep for a grand amount of nine night . The group was divided into three wedge - groups – one allowed to sleep for nine hours a night , another for a maximum of five hours a night , and a third that slept no longer than five hours a nighttime for five night before two night of sleeping for as long as they like , followed by two more nights of restricted sleeping .

The team notice increased snacking , system of weights profit , and reduced insulin sensitivity in the two recovery group . The volunteer allowed two days ’ worth of prevarication - insdidshow signs of melioration on those days ( for example , they snacked less ) , but any benefits dissipated as soon as the restricted sleeping summarize . What ’s more , the lie - in group actually showedworseoutcomes on measures like insulin sensitivity at the end of the study . Those whose sleeping was bound to five hours for the whole nine days saw a dip of 13 percent for whole - body insulin sensitivity , whereas those allow Trygve Halvden Lie - indium saw dips between 9 and 27 percent , with sensitiveness in the liver and brawn being especially miserable .

" In the end , we did n’t see any welfare in any metabolic outcome in the people who got to sleep in on the weekend,“saidChris Depner , lead author and assistant research professor of Integrative Physiology .

" It could be that the yo - yoing back and onward – changing the time we rust , changing our circadian clock and then going back to deficient slumber is unambiguously disruptive , " added Wright .

Sorry , folks . It seems that when it comes to eternal sleep , consistency is primal .